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Issue #374 - Sunday, June 16, 2019
Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue...
- Most growers want female plants in their garden since they make the flowers we all love. But today, we'll show you some stuff you DON'T want in your garden, and how to avoid it!
- If you don't want male plants, hermie plants, or plants that love making "nanners", I have a suggestion: Start with a well-tested strain like the one below!
- This week's trophy pics look like they were taken by a professional. Now that I say it, I'm pretty sure the person who took this week's trophy pics is a professional. (If not, they should consider it!)
- A grower sent in pictures of some plant damage from an unknown source... Test your plant-problem solving skills on the picture at the bottom of the newsletter and see if you can guess what's wrong!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com)
"I have an idea that the phrase 'weaker sex' was coined by some woman to disarm the man she was preparing to overwhelm."
~Ogden Nash
Male Plants, Hermies & Bananas (“Nanners”)
by Nebula Haze
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Table of Contents
(links open on GrowWeedEasy.com)
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Remove plants with both male pollen sacs and female flowers (hermies) to avoid pollination/seeds!
You may also see yellow “bananas” (stamens) growing on the buds. A stamen normally grows inside a male pollen sac but sometimes they appear directly on female buds, especially in times of stress. A stamen produces
pollen and doesn’t even need to open up before it starts making seeds! Remove plants immediately if they start growing bananas (also referred to as “nanners”) on the buds!
This is a hermie male pre-flower that also has two female pistils sticking out. Immediately toss plants that show both male and female flowers!
Male vs Female Cannabis Plants: Introduction
Cannabis Life Stages and Sex
Did you know there are “male” and “female” cannabis plants? Cannabis plants are “dioecious” plants, which means each plant shows a particular sex, just like humans and many animals. There will occasionally be plants that show mixed-sex and these plants are often referred to as hermaphrodites or “hermies”, which I will explain in much greater detail below.
The sex of a particular plant matters quite a bit to growers. That’s because only female cannabis plants produce buds. In fact, the “buds” that we smoke are actually the female flowers of the cannabis plant.
The highest quality bud is considered to be “sensimilla” and refers to female cannabis buds that have not been pollinated by a male cannabis plant. The word “sensimilla” actually comes from the Spanish phrase “sin semilla” which roughly translates to “without seeds.”
Regular marijuana seeds will usually be about 50% male, and 50% female. That means half of the seeds will be unusable as far as growing buds. Please note that some male cannabis plants (about 70% of male cannabis plants according to some estimates) may produce a small amount of useable THC via trichomes growing on the outside of the plant. Unless you’ve seen the males in your plant’s family tree, there is no way to know for sure if a particular male plant is
going to produce THC/trichomes. Even if it does it will be a much, much lower amount than a female cannabis plant producing buds.
If you have a male plant and you are trying to grow bud, I strongly, strongly recommend throwing the male plant away immediately and starting another seed or focusing on your other plants. It’s a waste of time to grow male plants for THC or other cannabinoids – they don’t grow buds!
Here’s a picture of a male cannabis plant – no buds or trichomes, just pollen sacs!
Quick Tip: How do you make sure you only grow female plants so all your plants produce buds?
One way around the issue of having 50% male and 50% female plants is to purchase feminized seeds online. These seeds are available from all reputable online seedbanks, and the plants produced by these seeds are always female. Get your questions about buying seeds online answered! You can also make your own feminized seeds, but you have to start with two known female cannabis plants.
It’s difficult to look at a young cannabis plant and know its sex
For the first part of your cannabis plant’s life, it will be in the first stage of growth known as the “Vegetative Stage.” In this stage, your plant will only grow leaves and stems, but no buds or flowers. Think of this as the time when your plant is gaining size to prepare for the second stage of life.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to determine the sex of a cannabis plant when it’s a young seedling. Although there is genetic testing that can be used on plants as young as 1 week old, most growers aren’t going to go that route. At a certain point, most strains will “reveal” their sex via pre-flowers at the joints. This can occur as young as 3 weeks old with male plants, and around 4-6 weeks old for female plants. This is normal and is just a sign that your plant
is fully mature and ready to start flowering. Learn more about preflowers.
Another great option is to use clones. Cuttings (clones) taken from a female plant will always turn out to be female. Sometimes clones are showing preflowers by the time they’re rooted as a clone. We also know that when you breed two female plants together, you end up with feminized (all-female) seeds.
So, unless you start with a known female clone or feminized seeds, there’s no way to know what sex your plant will turn out until it actually starts showing signs of sex organs. This happens in the second stage of your plant’s life, known as the “flowering stage.” The first sex organs that appear are often called “pre-flowers.”
When do cannabis plants reveal their sex?
In addition to looking for preflowers, all cannabis plants reveal their sex when they reach their second stage of life, known as the “Flowering Stage”.
The first sign of sex almost always appears at the “V” where new growth tips form from a stem, like this….
See the little growths appearing at the “V” or “crotch” where the growth node meets the stem? These are the first sign of “pre-flowers“. In this case, we can
see the pre-flowers are forming, but it could be tough to tell whether this plant is going to turn into a boy or a girl quite yet. (Note: It’s a boy)
Younger plants (that are less than 6 weeks old or haven’t shown preflowers yet) tend to take a little longer to switch into the flowering stage compared to older, more mature plants that have been vegetating for a while. Other than that, you can pretty much force a cannabis plant to start flowering no matter the age, even 2-3 weeks after the seed was germinated.
Read the full article about male vs female cannabis plants (and learn how to use cloning to identify the sex of young plants while they’re still in the vegetative stage – advanced only!): https://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-boy-girl
When Sex Isn’t as Certain... Avoid Accidental Pollination!
So now you know that most cannabis plants are normally considered to be either “male” and “female.” Yet sometimes you will run into plants that show both male and female characteristics, and these plants can accidentally self-pollinate, or pollinate your other female plants.
A cannabis plant that shows both male and female parts is often referred to by growers as a hermaphrodite or “hermie.” These can pollinate your plants and cause seedy buds.
There are a few different types of mixed-sex plants, and it’s important for a grower to understand some of the biggest differences so they make the best decision possible when faced with hermies.
Important: It's not advisable to breed mixed-sex plants to create seeds because their offspring are more likely to display hermie characteristics.
That's just the halfway mark! There's much more to learn about mixed-sex plants!
- True Hermaphrodites
- "Nanners"
- Why these things show up
- And more!
Avoid Hermies and Bananas
with a Well-Tested Strain!
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If you want to avoid mixed-sex plants showing up in your garden, there's a solution that will do a lot of the work for you:
Start with good, well-tested genetics!
Strains with good genes are less likely to hermie, even under high stress.
I've been growing Pineapple Chunk (below) for years and it consistently performs and has never given me a single problem. It also smells great and is potent...so that's another bonus!
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"GUYS. I'VE FOUND YOUR SITE AND THE ARTICLES VERY INFORMATIVE. A JOB WELL DONE. APPRECIATED. 5 STARS."
~STEVE G
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"Thank you very much for this great site. I guess it took hours and hours to write and to maintain. But it´s very helpful and fun to read. Thank you very much for your good work."
~Martin L.
Trophy Pictures of the Week!
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These pictures were sent in by a grower named Tara who did a fantastic job of composing these shots. Bravo! 👏
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Help! What's Wrong with My Plant?!
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This was sent in by a GrowWeedEasy.com reader:
"This is all over the plant, I bet you know what is it...what can I do, I'm confused 😒
I love your website, thanks for your great contribution in knowing all this stuff and passing it on to us followers. You and Sirius are the best, keep up the great work! 😎👍"
What do you think this problem is? We know what it is, but can you figure it out? Reply to this newsletter and tell us what you think is wrong with this plant!
Don't worry, we've already told the grower what to do!
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my
mission to make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
Get Your Seeds Delivered Safely! |
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GrowWeedEasy.com has put together a hand-picked list of all the available seed
banks including what type of payment they accept and where they ship in the world!
List of trusted seed sources:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds Get Seeds!
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2019 GrowWeedEasy.com
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Disclaimer: Grow Weed Easy only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we may receive a commission. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized Financial, Legal, or Medical Advice. The contributors to this magazine grow legally under their
local laws but are not lawyers or medical professionals. Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Any medical decisions should only be made after speaking with a doctor or other medical professional. Be safe!
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